Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Old South African anti-apartheid song stirs up new controversy
Leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, Julius Malema (centre) with party members sing and dance after addressing supporters during an election rally at Orlando Stadium in Soweto, South Africa, May 5, 2019

AN OLD anti-apartheid song that called on black people to resist oppression has made fresh headlines in South Africa after becoming subject to an order by the country’s highest court.

The song has been contentious for years in South Africa because of its central lyrics “kill the Boer” and “shoot the Boer,” using a word for a white farmer.

In modern-day South Africa, it has mainly been sung by black leaders of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) at political rallies. 

The party did so again last Friday, prompting South African-born business tycoon Elon Musk, a top adviser to US President Donald Trump, to write on X that the song was “actively promoting white genocide.”

It was the latest of a number of posts in which Mr Musk has condemned the song over the years.

The EFF says the song commemorates the fight against apartheid and shouldn’t be taken literally.

A court declared the song to be hate speech more than a decade ago, but that ruling was overturned in 2022, when a judge said there was no proof that it incited violence.

On Thursday, the Constitutional Court rejected an application by a group representing some of South Africa’s white minority to appeal against the latest ruling and have the song outlawed. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
MEMORY SERVES US RIGHT: (L to R) Activists at The Liberation
Features / 11 April 2025
11 April 2025
MARC WADSWORTH reports from the meeting to commemorate the Sharpeville Massacre 65 years ago
The remains of South Africans who died while exiled in Zimba
World / 26 September 2024
26 September 2024